I'm working on a program in C#, a part of which is to create a directory in the Application.StartupPath folder and then write a text file inside it using System.IO.File.WriteAllText(). My issue is that my program crashes, throwing an UnauthorizedAccessException and telling me that "Access to the path is denied", which is, well, odd, considering that it crashes regardless of the directory from which I am running the program, whether it be running from my cloud folders, Desktop, My Documents, etc, and even despite running it as Administrator in any of those directories.
The path from which I'm debugging it is C:\Users\Jeff\Google Drive\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Projects\Palobo\Palobo\bin\Debug. It is using System.IO;, and the code I'm using includes:
Directory.CreateDirectory(Application.StartupPath);
File.WriteAllText(Application.StartupPath, "Password=" + x);
where x is some String data entered by the user.
The error I get is:
Access to the path 'C:\Users\Jeff\Google Drive\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Projects\Palobo\mzdon29 is denied.
(mzdon29 being an encrypted result of jwalk96).
Does anyone have any ideas as to why I'm encountering this problem? Thanks!
Application.StartupPath is a folder (where your application is started from). Try to specify an exact filename inside that folder:
File.WriteAllText(Application.StartupPath + "\\MyFile.txt", "Password=" + x);
Let's look at this code:
Directory.CreateDirectory(Application.StartupPath);
File.WriteAllText(Application.StartupPath, "Password=" + x);
You're trying to create a directory that already exists, and then you're trying use the directory as a file name! You need to add something to end of the path, so that you're working with a new folder and file.
Also, using the StartupPath for this is poor practice in the first place. You can create a shortcut that sets the startup path to anywhere. But specifically, it's common for the default StartupPath to be somewhere under the Program Files folder. Items under this folder are read only to standard users by default. Instead, you should look at using the Application Data folder, like so:
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)
Finally, this sure looks like it's saving a password in plain-text. Do I really need to go over how bad that is? You shouldn't even save passwords encrypted (hashing is different than encryption), and this is one of those things that's so important you shouldn't even do it for testing/learning/proof of concept code.
Related
I have a program that opens a database, the path to that database is this:
private static string strDefaultDB2 = #"C:\Users\" + Environment.UserName + #"\OneDrive\TIME FILE\MyName\TimeFile.accdb";
All computers I have tried this one were able to access it fine except one, it also has access to OneDrive but when I run the code the file doesn't exist... If I enter the path generated by the code which is something like this:
C:\Users\UserName\OneDrive\TIME FILE\MyName\TimeFile.accdb
In explorer, it opens up the database right away. I'm not sure why it can't find the database on this one machine... I also tried running it as admin but that didn't change anything
This is the code that executes:
if (!System.IO.File.Exists(doesFileExist))
{
Polaris.Polaris.log("The Path " + doesFileExist + " Does Not Exist!");
runWindowDB();
}
If I try to do a rename on the file it throws an exception: "Could not find file [path]"
And If I try to open the database: "[path] is not a valid path"
I don't get it because this path has whitespace on every pc and the only thing that changes is the username. Explorer opens the file so the path is correct.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Do you get an exception? Can you read/write this file?
You have a whitespace in the string I don't think that is good anyway.
From the official documentation link:
If path describes a directory, this method returns false. Trailing
spaces are removed from the path parameter before determining if the
file exists.
The Exists method returns false if any error occurs while trying to
determine if the specified file exists. This can occur in situations
that raise exceptions such as passing a file name with invalid
characters or too many characters, a failing or missing disk, or if
the caller does not have permission to read the file.
Hard code another users username that you know works, try it from this machine, msdn mentions it will return false if there are invalid characters in the string or if the path is determined to be a folder, there might be some odd encoding going on or virus scanner intercepting the io. If that fails try getting the user to log onto another box that works and if the file is then recognized it must the environment on that users original box.
I have a strange problem: my .NET 4.0 WPF application is saving data to the ApplicationData folder.
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData) + "\\myProgram\\";
99.9% of the cases are working great, but on some computers it returns the wrong folder - instead of returning the user folder it returns another folder:
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\myProgram\ --correct
C:\Users\s\AppData\Roaming\myProgram\ --wrong
The wrong folder has no write/read permission so my program doesn't work.
It seems the program is running under a different user, but if I check the Task Manager the user is the logged one.
The problem seems to be occurring with domain users with few permissions.
Do you also create a text file to write?
If so save a file such as:
String path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
var filePath = Path.Combine(path, "filetowrite.log"); // Handles whether there is a `\` or not.
if (File.Exists(filePath))
{
......................
}
Note also before doing any file operations, one should check if directory exists.
I have created a .msi by using VS2008 setup project. My application frequently writes some value in a .txt file in the application directory (C:\Program Files\MyApp\MyFile.txt). After insalling it in Win7, it raises an exception "Access to the path .... is denied."
But whenever I run it as administrator, no such exception occurs. Here is my sscce
string FilePath=Application.StartupPath + #"\AppSettings\CurrentUserName.inf";
using (StreamWriter writer=new StreamWriter(FilePath,false))
{
writer.Write(txtLoginName.Text.Trim());
}
MainForm.ProcessLogIn();
this.DialogResult = DialogResult.OK;
I don't know how to solve this problem. Any suggestion?
Move your file out of Program Files directory. In Win7 is readonly for normal users.
You could move the file in the ProgramData directory.
Your installer should create a directory for your application there.
Then inside your code you could retrieve the correct full pathname using these lines of code
string dataPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData));
string appFile = Path.Combine(dataPath, "MyAppDir", "MyFile.txt");
usually (on Win7) this result in a path like this
c:\programdata\MyAppDir\MyFile.txt
but using the SpecialFolder enum you are guaranteed to use a folder available in readwrite to your application not depending on the current operating system.
The only way to solve this problem is to not write to that folder. You are not allowed to write to that folder by convention, unfortunately, older versions of Windows did not hold you to this.
Instead, you can use Environment.SpecialFolder to help you find where you need to go:
// your application data for just that User running the app
var perUserAppData = Environment.GetFolderPath(
Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
// your application data for ALL users running the app
var allUsersAppData = Environment.GetFolderPath(
Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData);
// better!
var path = Path.Combine(perUserAppData, #"MyApp\MyFile.txt");
Basically, Windows 7 is telling you that you're going to have to stop driving on the sidewalks and use the street as was intended.
As a short-term fix, you can use ICACLS to grant write access to the file. Note: NOT the whole directory.
As a longer term fix, you should NOT write to the program directory if you are running as unprivileged users, but instead somewhere like %LOCALAPPDATA% or %APPDATA%.
I have an application in Visual Studio C# which includes saving into a text file, how can I have a .exe sent to another computer and not have an exception in saving?
I need to send a .exe file by email (Yes it's possible) and this application includes saving the state of the game. How can I send this .exe file and let the user be able to save in his computer please?
The problem is that when I send my application's executable file on another computer, I'm getting an exception in saving. Because on the other computer I don't have the text file which I'm saving the game.
I am saving here :
StreamWriter myFile = File.CreateText(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()+"//ConnectFour.txt");
in the obj/Debug/ of the project..
Thanks for your help :)
Sending an executable should work just fine.
Make sure the other computer has the appropriate Microsoft .NET Framework installed.
Latest framework installer: MSDN
Also, make sure the path inwhich you're saving the file to exists on the remote computer. For example, if you're trying to save to the D:\ drive and it doesn't exist. You will get an exception.
Most likely current location is not writable by current user.
Using "current directory" is dangerous as you have no control over where application is launched from. It is very useful for command line utilities, but not so much for regular windowed applications. Use location that you know you can save files to - i.e. "My Documents".
var filePath = Path.Combine(
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments) + "\\",
ConnectFour.txt");
using(var myFile = File.CreateText(filePAth))
{
// save data here.
}
The problem when sending executables by email are the anti-virus-scanners. Some of them refuse e-mails containing executables. Others accept the mails but delete the attachment.
The solution consists in hiding the executable. This can be done by zipping the executable and sending the zip-file.
Often this is enough to solve the problem but some anti-virus-scanners are very smart and even recognize executables within the zip-attachment. The solution here is to encrypt the zip-file with a password. I often just use the password "pwd" and mention it in the e-mail text. The anti-viruses are not (yet) smart enough to understand this text.
UPDATE
Now I understand your problem. It has nothing to do with sending the executable.
An application can determine from which directory it has been started like this
string dir = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(
System.Windows.Forms.Application.ExecutablePath
);
An alternative is (if you don't have a reference to WinForms):
string dir = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(
System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location
);
You probably do not have sufficient privileges to save the file on the remote machine. If you give us more information on the exact exception that is being thrown (type of exception, message, stack trace, etc) you will get a more accurate answer.
configFilePath = #"C:\Users\" + userName + #"\abc\abc.exe.config";
if(File.Exists(configFilePath))
{
StreamReader fileReader = new StreamReader(configFilePath);
}
The above line throws "could not find part of the path" exception. This error occurs in a particular machine. In all other machines it works fine. And even in that machine , the same code worked before. No changes made in the machine. I have read all the forums where this issue had been discussed. But couldn't able to figure out why this happens in that machine alone and that too now. Having permissions to access the folder and file.
First, use Path.Combine() rather than string concatenation for paths. However, the user name may contain a character that is invalid in a path, such as a single quote, so it may have been escaped. Assuming "C:\Users" is the users' directory and not your own folder structure, a better solution is to lookup the user profile folder for that user using the Environment.GetFolderPath() method with the UserProfile value from the SpecialFolders enumeration.
Something else to think about is permissions on the file/folder. I've run into issues where all of a sudden the folder security gets out of whack because of a windows update.